Welcome to the Entouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 17.

All believers live under the umbrella of God's grace. That protection helps us weather even the most severe storm.

Here's part one of God's sustaining grace.

What's so amazing about grace is that not only does the grace of God take care of our sin through the cross,

but also it takes care of my daily life, my heart aches, my burdens, my trials, my sicknesses, my fears, my doubts,

all the things that you and I go through. That's what grace is all about because you see people say,

well I want the mercy of God, do you know what you're asking for? You want, listen, what you want is you want God to be merciful to you

that is you don't want what you deserve. But in grace, what does He do? He gives us what we don't deserve.

And the amazing grace of God we sing about it, but oftentimes we limit that to sin, forgiveness of sins in our life.

But so you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He forgives you of your sin. Now you have the Christian life to walk.

You face the same difficulty, hardship, pain, suffering, and trials that people who not Christians face.

Because life is life, humanity is humanity, sin is sin. And we all have to face these things every day of our life.

And so the question is, as a follower of Jesus Christ, how do you face them? Do you face them triumphantly? Do you mown and growl and complain?

And you doubt and you get discouraged and you get down on the dumps and you want to quit and walk away? How do you respond to life?

Well, that's what grace is all about. Not only the forgiveness of my sin, but enabling me, strengthening me, encouraging me.

Listen, enabling me to face life as it is and face it with absolute confidence that my Heavenly Father is watching over me, caring for me, enabling me in every circumstance of life.

Well, if anybody was a good example, there was a possible Paul. And I want you to turn if you will to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Now, remember what we said grace is. Grace is God's undeserved, unearned, favored, and loving kindness that he bestows upon us in spite of the fact that we don't deserve it.

We can't deserve it. We don't earn it and we don't deserve it. And yet he is gracious and kind and loving to us anyway.

Well, the apostle Paul certainly understood what grace was all about. And when we talk about sustaining grace, and that's the title of this message, we're talking about the grace of God that upholds us, that lifts us, that enables us, that strengthens us, that will not let us sink.

That is, it's the kind of grace, it's the kind of loving, caring, goodness of God that enables us to face anything and everything in life with confidence and assurance and boldness, and in the process of it, we profit from it, and we grow in our personal intermory relationship with Jesus Christ.

So beginning in this 12th chapter, look if you will in verse 6. He's been talking about how God had been working in his life, and then he says,

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